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Comment by brudgers | Hacker News Reader

If this is a hobby decision, then buying a Mac is spending money on your hobby. If it's a business decision then YAGNI applies until you have paying work developing iOS/OSX applications. Even then on the iOS front there are things like Xamrin that cover the functional requirements for iOS and the price of new hardware covers many months of subscription.

Good luck.

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>until you have paying work developing iOS/OSX applications.

Isn't it a little disingenuous to advertise that you are able to develop iOS/OSX when you can't at the moment?

YAGNI doesn't really apply to building new skills or gaining new capabilities... especially when said skills and capabilities open up new markets.

In my opinion, the way to move into iOS would be with a small project that is adjunct to some larger project. If a person has never done commercial development for iOS, owning a Mac or taking Code Academy's Swift course doesn't really count for much in terms of professional experience anyway. YMMV.

Thanks for the advice. But, if I won't learn how to develop iOS\OSX applications then I will never have paying work related to it, right? I believe this will be half hobby half investing in my future skills.

If the equipment is generating revenue then it's a business. If it isn't then its a hobby. Calling it a "half hobby half investment" is just BS for the sake of a rationalization for buying something shiny. There's nothing wrong with buying something shiny, but it's better if it is acknowledged as buying something shiny rather than pretending its an investment. All that's needed for iOS/OSX development is a used Mac Mini.

The equipment will be meant to generate revenue. But it can only generate revenue once I learn how to develop for ios\osx. And I can only learn it by having a mac.

I don't want shinny. I want something portable (hence the mbp or mba) and powerful enough to do what I want.

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